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Reading Guide for "Brains and Behavior" by Hilary Putnam (Originally from 1961, Reprinted in Chalmers P

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Reading Guide for Reading Guide for "Brains and Behavior" by Hilary Putnam (originally from 1961, reprinted in Chalmers p. 45-54) Jeffrey Kaplan The theory that Putnam discusses in this paper is called “logical behaviorism”. Logical behaviorism is a theory of mental states. Putnam begins the paper by explaining logical behaviorism by analogy: the logical behaviorist explains mental states in the same way that certain logicians have attempted to explain numbers. If you are not familiar with the particular theory of numbers, then this may be a bit confusing. But don’t worry about the details of this analogy. The important statement of logical behaviorism comes at the end of the paragraph beginning “What was novel about this…” and ending in the next column. And the most important aspects of logical behaviorism come at the end of the next paragraph and in the numbered points on the next page. On p. 46 “Entailment” is the word for a relation among sentences (or propositions) whereby one must be true if the others are. So, for example, ‘Socrates is a man’ entails that ‘someone is a man’ because if it is true that Socrates is a man, then it must be true that someone is a man. The term “analytic” is applied to sentences (or propositions) when those sentences are true solely in virtue of the meanings of the terms in them. The example of such a sentence that Putnam uses is “All bachelors are unmarried”. Putnam states the thesis of his paper in the paragraph beginning “I wish…”. Section “Logical Behaviorism” This is the crucial section of the paper. In it Putnam presents an extended counterexample to behaviorism. The final paragraph of this section introduces the next section, which is a complicated discussion of what a behaviorist might say in response. Since that is not necessary for this course, don't read the final section. Just read this section, Logical Behaviorism, through all but the final paragraph. On p. 46 As Putnam is using the technical term here, the “intension” of a word is the component of the meaning of that word that a speaker has in mind and in virtue of which she applies the word. Here Putnam makes a specific claim about the intension of the mental term “pain”. He says, “I am inclined to say that ‘pain’ is a cluster-concept.” And then he goes on to explain what a cluster- concept, as he understands it, is. It is a concept for which we have some criteria for its application. That is, there are some features that we have in mind, and if something has these features, then we apply the concept. And here is the important part: those features in virtue of which we apply the concept, they are not part of the definition of the concept. This is why Putnam gives the names of 1 diseases as examples of the kinds of cluster concepts that he has in mind. You apply the concept or word “polio” based on some symptoms. But the symptoms are not part of the disease by definition. After all, you could have polio with different symptoms or perhaps no symptoms at all. The word “synthetic” is applied to sentences that are true not by definition. So this is what Putnam means when he says that “The application of the word ‘pain’ is controlled by a whole cluster of criteria, all of which can be regarded as synthetic.” It means that we call something “pain” because that thing has features that we notice, but it is not part of the definition of the word “pain” that painful things have these features. On p. 47 So in saying that mental terms, like “pain”, are relevantly like disease names, like “polio”, Putnam is opposing logical behaviorism. If it isn’t clear to you why this is, re-read the discussion of diseases and think about what exactly behaviorism claims. In the analogy, ‘disease talk’ corresponds to ‘mental talk’ and ‘symptom talk’ corresponds to ‘behavior talk’. Putnam is claiming that the disease does not logically entail the symptoms. Rather the disease is the cause and the symptoms are the typical, but not necessary, effects. So too with mental states. Contrary to behaviorism, the mental state does not logically entail the behavior. Rather, the mental state is the cause and the behavior is the typical, but not necessary, effect. On p. 48 In the first column, a concise and crucial part of this paper is from “Just as before…” through “...but no pain behavior.” “Lexical” just means relating to words. So the phrase that Putnam uses, “lexical definition”, is somewhat repetitive. It just means definition or definition of a word. It’s always a good idea to pay particular attention anytime an author says, “To sum up…” or something similar. “Empirical” is a term meaning based on observation or experience, as opposed to pure thought or logic. On p. 49 Putnam is now directly attacking behaviorism by presenting counterexamples. The presentation of counterexamples begins on the previous page when he says, “Let us now engage in a little science fiction.” These examples are the crux of Putnam’s paper. If you understand these examples and why they are relevant to behaviorism, then you understand the central issue. In the paragraph beginning "It may be contended..." Putnam is considering a point that an opponent of his might raise. The phrase "sine qua non" is Latin meaning without which nothing. The phrase is used to introduce some condition or ingredient that is absolutely necessary. On p. 50 In the section beginning with "In short..." and continuing through the next full paragraph, we get a good statement of the conclusion that Putnam draws from these two examples. 2 Section "Some Behaviorist Arguments" In this final section, Putnam considers some responses that a behaviorist might use in reply to what Putnam said in the previous section. This section is complicated and is not necessary for our purposes in this class. So you don't need to read it. 3 .
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